Dragon and Liberator

CHAPTER 16

Back in the monitor room Jack had noticed that the two remaining Death weapons were in the same rooms on the starboard side of the ship as the two he and Draycos had already hit on the port side. One of those rooms had the same direct access to the tween gap as the last room they'd been in.

They would have to do it quickly, of course, before the Brummgas and Valahgua had time to figure out how the whole tween gap thing worked and come up with a way to block it.

Accordingly, as soon as Draycos returned with their supplies Jack laid out his plan. Draycos approved, and they headed out.

They reached the back-door entrance without incident. Draycos did his looking-over-the-wall trick, pinpointing the positions of all eight Brummgas who had taken up guard positions around the weapon.

With the previous attack still fairly recent, Jack figured the aliens would still not be completely up to speed. He was right. Draycos popped the door and Jack instantly opened fire with his tangler, nailing all eight aliens before they could do more than draw their weapons.

Still, they were more alert than he'd hoped. Even as the last one hit the floor the door across the room slid open and the backup group charged in.

Or at least, they tried to charge in. Jack had another clip in his tangler in time to nail the first two as they started through the doorway. They went unconscious as the shock capacitor knocked them cold, and sagged still more or less upright as the milky white tangler threads glued them to the sides of the doorway.

The rest of the Brummgas behind them howled in rage and frustration. A couple of the nearest lifted their guns over the heads of their unconscious comrades and blindly opened fire into the room.

Jack responded by shooting at the flailing arms with more tangler cartridges. That silenced the guns and added a couple more bodies to his makeshift roadblock.

He had drained that clip and was grabbing for a third when Draycos leaped back through the opening beside him. "Go," the K'da said, stretching his forelegs up toward the overhead bar.

Jack grabbed the panel's handles and shoved. As the panel slid shut, he caught a single glimpse of the pile of rubble that was the remains of the Death weapon.

Draycos had the bracing bar ready by the time the panel was back in place. Even so, they nearly didn't make it. A fraction of a second after Jack slid the bar into place there was a terrific thud that seemed to shake the whole bulkhead.

The impact jarred the bar partially loose. Jack and Draycos got to it at the same time, and with two hands and two paws tugging at it they managed to get it back in place before the next blow came. "Head aft," Draycos murmured, touching Jack's hand and sliding up his sleeve. I want to take a different route back to the fire control room, Draycos added as his contact reestablished their telepathic link. There's another section of climbable mesh about twenty feet back.

Jack nodded and headed down the narrow space. That seemed to go well, he commented, wincing at the blows still slamming into the panel behind them. They do seem a mite perturbed, though.

As well they should, Draycos agreed. Three Death weapons down. Only one to go.

Jack grimaced. Actually, it's probably more like two to go, he said reluctantly. Now that they're on to us, they're going to take a hard look at the one I gimmicked.

Will they be able to fix it?

Theoretically, yes, Jack said. Unless they're complete idiots, they'll certainly spot the first booby trap I set. The only question is whether they'll be happy with that, or whether they'll delve deeper and find the other one, too. I'm sorry—I should have tried to do more.

You had limited time and opportunity, Draycos reminded him calmly. If you'd taken too long, either the Brummgas with us or the watchers in the monitor room might have become suspicious. That would have ended the subtle approach right there.

I suppose, Jack conceded. I was still hoping I could do something more permanent to it.

Things don't always work out as we hope, Draycos said. That's the way with many endeavors, and warfare is no different. The warrior must always be ready to adapt to the unexpected. The K'da paused, and Jack could almost see one of his open-jawed grins. Wasn't that also true in your previous profession?

Jack had to smile. Believe it, buddy, he agreed. I can't even count how many times Uncle Virgil had to scramble like crazy to fix some plan that was about to go gunnybags on us.

Then this is merely standard procedure for both of us, Draycos said. Very well then. Two Death weapons to go. We'll leave yours for last, since there's a chance they won't find the damage—

Hold it, Jack interrupted, frowning. Was that a light he was seeing in the distance ahead? Close your eyes a second, will you?

Obediently, Draycos shut his eyes, cutting off their green glow. It was a light, all right, Jack decided as he peered down the tween gap. Had the Brummgas found one of the other entrances?

A second later, he got his answer. With a thunderous roar that was even louder than usual in the confined space, someone ahead opened fire.

Draycos was off Jack's skin in an instant, grabbing the boy's arm and pulling him straight down. Jack landed on his chest on the meshwork floor, the impact knocking half the breath out of him. Another second, and he was slammed again as Draycos landed full length on top of him. "Draycos—!" he gasped with what air he had left in his lungs.

"Stay down!" the K'da shouted in his ear, the words barely audible over the gunfire. "Ricochets!"

Jack tensed. With the sound of the firing hammering his ears, he hadn't even heard the quieter impacts of the bullets themselves as they bounced their way between the walls of the tween gap.

A second gun joined the first, this one somewhere behind and above him. "Do we have a plan?" Jack called.

There was no answer, only a strange squirming of Draycos's body on top of his. The K'da's weight was still pressing him against the mesh, making breathing difficult.

A third gun opened up ahead and above him. Then a fourth added its roar to the din, and possibly a fifth. Jack pressed his cheek against the mesh, waiting helplessly for the bullet that he knew was bound to find him.

And then the mesh suddenly gave way beneath him, dumping him sideways toward the deep chasm below.

He yelped with surprise and a flash of panic. But even before the yelp made it out past his lips his fall was stopped short. There was another second of confusion and dizziness.

Then his brain cleared, and he understood. Draycos had cut the mesh floor beneath them on only three sides, and their combined weight had then bent it down like an opening trapdoor. Draycos, all four sets of claws gripping the mesh, was holding them sideways against the open flap. "We must get away from here," Draycos said in Jack's ear.

"I'm with you, buddy," Jack said. "How?"

In answer, Draycos stretched out his top two limbs a few inches, easing the pressure on Jack's body Jack tensed again, but with the K'da's lower legs still hooked to the mesh flap he was in no danger of falling. "Roll over so that you're facing me," Draycos said.

It was tricky to maneuver in the cramped space and with the small amount of slack Draycos had given him. But the guns still thundering all around them made for good inspiration. Jack got himself turned around in Olympic-record time. "Now hold on tightly," Draycos said.

Jack wrapped his arms and legs around the other's torso. Draycos let go with his front paws, lunging forward and grabbing the underside of the mesh just in front of their hanging flap. He walked the paws forward, working his rear paws onto the mesh behind them.

And with that the K'da headed off, moving rapidly along the underside of the mesh.

With the long tween gap yawning under him, the booming gunfire rattling the metal above him, and the violent jostling as Draycos clawed his upside-down way beneath the mesh, all Jack could do was shut his eyes, wish he could shut his ears, and hold on for dear life. The bouncing went on and on. . . .

Abruptly, Draycos stopped. "Hold tighter," he ordered over the noise of the gunfire.

Jack nodded and got a fresh grip on the K'da's torso, pressing the side of his head against the other's scale-covered neck. Draycos let go of the mesh with his rear claws, and once again Jack's stomach churned with the brief sensation of falling. For another second the K'da continued to hang on to the mesh only with his front claws. Then Jack felt the rear paws find a grip, and a moment later he found himself again squeezed between Draycos and cold metal as the K'da climbed rapidly down another of the vertical mesh sections.

The gunfire above them was starting to slow down by the time they reached bottom. Bottom, in this case, was another mesh walkway. For a few seconds Draycos peered into the darkness, as if figuring out exactly where they were. Then, touching Jack's hand, he slid up his sleeve. Straight ahead about fifty feet, he said. There should be another entrance panel on your right.

Got it. Jack set off, his knees feeling a little wobbly.

The gunfire continued to slow down, and by the time they reached the panel it had stopped entirely. Be careful as you open it, Draycos warned. They're undoubtedly listening now front above, hoping to hear what we might be doing.

In that case, let's just hang here a minute, Jack suggested. Sooner or later, they're bound to start making noise again.

Draycos seemed to think about that, and Jack could sense his uneasiness with the situation. They were still very much exposed out here, and his warrior's instincts were probably screaming at him to get them under better cover. Trust me, Jack said.

Very well, Draycos said reluctantly. But if I hear anyone approaching—

He broke off as a soft metallic thud came from somewhere above and forward of their position. Sounds like one of the mercenaries is coming in to look for our bullet-riddled bodies, Jack said, getting a grip on the panel's handles. That's our cue.

He paused, his hands still on the handles, listening hard. Through the mesh he could now see the faint glow of a flashlight peeking through the mesh far above them. The footsteps started up, paused, then started up again, settling into a rhythm.

And with perfect timing, Jack popped the panel exactly as one of the footsteps sent its covering echo through the tween gap.

A minute later, they were through the doorway. Jack got a grip on the edge of the panel and pulled it back into place, again timing the event to coincide with the distant traveler's footsteps. Okay, he said, taking a deep breath. I think we're in.

I believe you're right, Draycos agreed. Well done, Jack.

Years of practice, Jack assured him. With some of the crazy jobs Uncle Virgil had me pull, I had to raise running and hiding to a fine art.

He looked around. The room they were in was long and narrow, with a ten-foot-tall, box-shaped cabinet on each of the fore and aft bulkheads. Control displays on each winked with colored status lights. Connecting the cabinets to the walls and ceiling were more stripe/spot-marked pipes. Another fire control room? he hazarded.

No, this is one of the ship's water-reclamation plants, Draycos said.

Really, Jack said, looking at the cabinets with new interest. The crew drinks the stuff that comes out of these, do they?

From these and nine other plants throughout the ship, Draycos said. Why?

Because there are two ways to keep a gun from going off, Jack said. Wreck the gun, or stop the person from pulling the trigger.

Are you suggesting we poison them? The entire crew?

We don't have to kill them, Jack said hastily. There had been an unpleasant tone in the K'da's mental voice just then. I was thinking we could find a way to knock them out. Or else make them so sick they can't function.

Draycos was silent a moment. We would need to sabotage all ten of the purifiers, he pointed out. And we would have to do all ten simultaneously. Otherwise, once people started getting sick they'd realize something was wrong and guard the rest of the purifiers.

True, Jack said. We'd also have to find something that would affect humans, Brummgas, and Valahgua.

And we'd need to deal with the emergency bottled water, as well, Draycos continued. Those supplies are, unfortunately, scattered throughout the ship.

Which means we'd have to hit them hard and fast, Jack said slowly, trying to think. Uncle Virgil had taught him a fair amount about incapacitating drugs and chemicals. Surely he could come up with something he could make up from stuff already aboard ship.

The big question was whether he could do it in time.

In time? Draycos asked.

We've got less than six days until we hit Point Three, remember? Jack said. At that point, the Brummgas scream for help and Frost throws everything he's got at us.

What if we destroy the radios? Draycos suggested. That might at least buy us another few hours.

Not worth the risks, Jack said. Besides, even if we could take out all the actual radios, anyone with a comm clip will be able to punch a message across the kind of distance we're talking about.

He grimaced. Besides, whatever was going on with the Essenay just before we went on ECHO, there's a good chance Neverlin and Frost already know we're here. They'll be over as soon as we all come off ECHO.

For a moment Draycos was silent. Jack tried to catch some of the K'da's thoughts, but they flashed by too subtly and too quickly. Then we'll just have to make do with the time we have, he said.

Right, Jack agreed. Are there any other secret ways of getting around this ship besides the tween gap?

There are the ventilation ducts, Draycos reminded him.

I meant for me, Jack said. Unfortunately, my body doesn't compress nearly as well as yours and Taneem's do. He shook his head. I still can't believe she was able to get around the Advocatus Diaboli that way. What in the world did its designers think they were doing, making ducts that big?

Actually, oversized ducts are a fairly standard large-ship design, according to the technical material I read in the Essenay's encyclopedia, Draycos said. If there's a hull breach, you want to be able to deliver massive quantities of air to the affected area, thereby giving anyone trapped there a chance to escape or put on an emergency vac suit. A ship the size of the Advocatus Diaboli usually has plenty of air reserves available for such a purpose.

He flicked his tail against Jack's leg. I'm surprised Virgil Morgan never taught you about that.

I'm not, Jack said sourly. Uncle Virgil was strictly about practical stuff, and I outgrew ventilation ducts when I hit seven.

Of course, Draycos said. My apologies for bringing up an unpleasant subject.

Don't worry about it, Jack assured him, shifting his thoughts firmly away from childhood memories. Okay, we've got six days. Let's start by taking an inventory of what we've got to work with.